Genesis
by DCUnitedFanfics
Summary: One-shot. Dick Grayson decides to leave Batman's shadows and goes on his own path. He becomes Nightwing and begins to form a team of his own but he soon realizes that gathering new team members is not as easy as Batman made it look. Introducing Raven and Starfire and other Titans. Rated T - M.


**This story was not planned to be written but I'm going to write it anyways because I want to give out my own perspective on what I would like to see happen in the upcoming live action series of the Teen Titans which I'm very excited for.**

 **Right now, I'm testing this intro as a one-shot and if you guys want more, I'll be more than happy to oblige.**

 **I also recommend you guys to check out ReemasB's fanfictions _Rising Robin_ , _Starling Wing_ and his version of _Titans_. His fanfics are really cool and badass. **

**Since the live action series has Nightwing as the main character, the intro will start with him.**

* * *

Dick, Jason and Barbara are sitting by the parlour. Well, Dick isn't exactly sitting. He's just walking around the parlour in front of the bookshelf where heavy volumes and paperbacks are crammed together. Dick is 17. Barbara is 16. And Jason is 14. Barbara is sitting on the brown velvet couch reading a thick book in her hands while Jason, as always, is looking over her shoulder in the most annoying way.

"Jason..." Barbara sighs as reads her book in peaceful silence, only to have it disturbed by Jason Todd himself who won't stop hovering over her shoulder to see what she's reading while breathing _directly_ in her ear. "Jason, quit it..."

"What are you reading?" He asks.

"Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," she tells him.

"What's it about?" He asks, clearly pestering her by the smirk he has on his face.

Barbara rolls her blue-grey eyes in annoyance. "A scientist that conducts an experiment that turns him into a different person, a monster to be exact."

Jason makes a face in distaste. "Sounds boring."

She scoffs at his comment. "You don't even like reading."

"I know."

"Then why do you keep asking me?"

He shrugs but the answer is clear. "Because it's fun."

"Oh my God!" Barbara groans in annoyance, "Can you just let me read in peace?"

Jason suddenly starts poking her on the shoulder repeatedly. A few seconds later, Barbara's face instantly matches her hair, turning red with anger. "Jason, I swear to God if you don't stop bothering me, I'm going to kick your ass so hard that you'll be sitting in a wheelchair for a year!"

But he doesn't stop poking her. Barbara tries to ignore him but it's becoming repetitive and annoying. Jason pokes her even faster.

When she finally can't take it anymore, Barbara gets up from the sofa. "That's it! You're dead, Jason Todd!"

The chase is on. Jason immediately bolts out of the parlour and Barbara runs after him, leaving Dick laughing in amusement. The moment Barbara and Jason left, Bruce enters the parlour wearing a black sweater and grey trousers, clearly his day off. No crime in Gotham today. Bullshit. There's always crime in Gotham. It has become part of their daily routine. But these are probably crimes GCPD can handle themselves, nothing too serious.

"I'm guessing Jason was bothering her again," Bruce says. He obviously saw Barbara chasing Jason out in the hallway. It happened in seconds.

Dick laughs about it. "You have no idea. Jason was breathing in Barbara's ear and then started poking her to the point where she got pissed off."

"Oh Jason," Bruce pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs, "When will he learn to grow up?"

Dick shrugs his shoulders. "Probably never. You okay? You don't look fine."

"Just running a few thoughts in my head," he says, "I'm not going to lie to you, Dick but I'm still figuring out the whole sidekick thing. When you left, I was already getting used to working alone and now Jason is here. And I don't know how to handle him. I thought training him would be as easy as training you but I was wrong."

Dick rolls his eyes at this. If Bruce thinks that Dick is going to return as Robin, he'll need to rethink that possibility. He only comes to Wayne Manor because this is his home, the place he grew up in. Bruce and Alfred were the people that raised him. They're his family. He simply doesn't want to be Robin anymore. He got tired of living as a shadow behind Bruce, following him wherever he goes and doing everything he says. But just because he doesn't want to be Robin anymore, it doesn't mean that he doesn't care about Bruce anymore. On the contrary, he cares...a lot. Alfred called him this week to inform him that a thug shot Bruce in the thigh and Jason broke the thug's collarbone.

"We all have different personalities, Bruce," Dick reminds him. Bruce can sometimes forget that Jason is not Dick. Jason may be an acrobatic and is good at fighting like Dick, but Jason has a different personality than Dick. "Jason's a wildcard. We both knew he was never going to be like me but he's good and you know it. So maybe instead of thinking the negative side of things, you should try to think the positive side of things for once. Jason may be a bit of an asshole but he has a big heart and I've had experiences with assholes with big hearts."

"Maybe you're right - Hey!" Bruce realizes that the last part is referring to him. Dick simply shrugs. He cannot deny the truth but yes, Bruce can be an asshole sometimes and Dick has never tried to say otherwise. That would be lying.

"Listen, Bruce, even if I no longer want to be Robin, I'm still going to be hanging around Wayne Manor," Dick says, "I grew up here, remember? And if you need help with Jason, you know you can count on me. I mean, come on...What's the worse that can happen?"

Jason Todd has been with Bruce, Alfred and Dick for six years after finding him stealing the tires of the Batmobile when he was eight. He became Robin after Dick dropped it to have a life of his own. Unfortunately, it didn't last long. Jason was trying to find his mother in Sarajevo, Bosnia, after finding out that she was still alive. The Joker apparently knew where she was and Jason went after him while Bruce was fighting off the minions. Jason got captured by the Joker and was tortured tremendously, beaten half to death with a crowbar. The thing that killed Jason at the end was a bomb the Joker left activated in the warehouse. Bruce tried to reach Jason when finding out where the Joker kept him but it was too late. The bomb went off and Jason Todd died in the explosion. The only thing Bruce was able to recover was the body all burnt and bloody, burnt from the explosion and bloody from the beating.

Bruce was still in Sarajevo at the moment so he sent pictures of Jason's body to the Batcave. Alfred was shocked. Dick was devastated. Barbara just lost it.

"No! That's not Jason!" she yelled angrily to the point she was in tears, "That's not him!"

Dick had to hold her until she calmed down. She even slapped him in the face so he'd let her go but didn't. Barbara ended up sobbing on his shoulder, both of them mourning for the loss of Jason Todd.

Months later, Barbara was shot. It happened too fast. Her father Jim was at her apartment. They were just talking. Then he left. Barbara heard a knock on the door. She thought her father forgot something. When she opened the door, the Joker was standing right there outside her apartment, pointing a gun at her. She tried closing the door but the Joker pulled the trigger and Barbara fell to the ground with a bloody bullet hole in her stomach, blood blooming on her yellow shirt.

Dick visits her after that night, bringing a bouquet of red roses for her. He sees her lying on the narrow hospital bed with silver frame. Barbara looks so pale, her lips chapped and dry, her orange-red hair dark and unkempt, and her blue-grey eyes hollow. Dick expected her to be unconscious but she's awake though barely. Her blinks are slow and empty.

Once Dick steps into the room, Barbara turns her head to look at him tiredly. She doesn't say anything. She simply lifts up her cracked lips in a small tired smile.

"I heard about what happened to you so I thought I'd bring you some flowers and see how you're doing," Dick says. He sets the bouquet of rose down next to her hospital bed and sits down on a chair. Barbara looks at the roses before looking at him.

"Roses are a cliché but thanks," her voice croaks and strains. Tears prickle her eyes. "You didn't have to come all the way from Blüdhaven just to see me."

"Yes, I did," Dick contradicts her, "You're the most important thing in my life. How could you think that? Where's Bruce? Where's your dad?" He expected for Barbara's father or Bruce to be in the hospital, looking out for her but neither of them are here which is odd.

Tears begin to stream down her eyes. "Bruce is looking for him. The Joker got him...This is all my fault!" She sobs.

Dick immediately reaches out puts his arm around her shoulders. "Hey, no. Babs, you didn't know. It's not your fault."

She looks at him straight in the eye. "...Yes it is. If I had just told him I was working with Batman, maybe we wouldn't be in this mess. But no, I had to keep fucking secrets from him," she continues to cry, wiping off her tears as more came running down her cheeks. "This is what we get for being heroes."

"Listen, don't blame yourself for what the Joker did," he tells her, "Right now, you need to recover. Once you get back on your feet, we're going to find your father. Okay?"

Barbara looks at Dick in surprise, her eyes widening. "They didn't tell you, didn't they?"

He frowns. "Tell me what?"

"Doctors told me when the Joker shot me in the stomach, the bullet went straight through my lower spine and caused severe permanent damage," she explains to him, "I can't feel my legs. I'm never going to walk again."

Dick lets those words sink in. Never walk again. That means she can never fight crime or be Batgirl again. Dick runs a hand through his black hair in frustration. I should have stayed in Gotham, he thinks to him, believing that if he stayed, Barbara probably wouldn't be paralyzed from the waist down. He blames himself for it.

He then feels Barbara's cold hand hold his. There are bandages around the hands, showing signs that she cut her hands with something when she got shot.

"I've been thinking," Barbara speaks up again, "...About Jason. How ironic it feels right now when I told him I would kick his ass so hard that he would end up in a wheelchair for an entire year. Looks like the one who's actually going to end up in a wheelchair is me." She sighs and bites her lower lip. "When he died, I kept thinking the days I told him he was a dead man every time he kept bugging me. I never actually meant it."

"We all knew that," Dick says. He is aware that Barbara is blaming herself for Jason's death. It's not her fault. She wasn't there when it happened. Bruce keeps blaming himself as well and he _was_ there. No one had predicted it. It just happened. "Even Jason knew you were playing. No one knew what the Joker was going to do to him."

"By the time we did, it was too late," she says, "Dick, we all know that it could have been you beaten to a bloody pulp and then blown up if you hadn't given up the Robin persona. Not saying that I was happy that it was Jason. But it makes me realize that anyone close to Batman can get hurt. You. Alfred. Lucius. Me. This is what we get. We all wanted to make the world a better place but we never realize that those desires come with a price until it's too late. The last thing I want is for you to suffer the same fate..."

"Barb," Dick interrupts her. "You're not making any sense. What are you trying to say?" He assumes that it's the effects of the anesthetics making her talk strange. It happens to a lot of people. They say things without thinking or meaning.

"Get out," she says to him firmly, "Get out of Gotham. Get out of this world while you still can. The only reason the Joker never took you for a joyride is because you stopped being Robin. You need to detach yourself from Bruce and leave Gotham while you still have the chance."

"Babs, you're on meds," he tells her, giving her his usual charming smile, "You don't really know what you're saying."

"I am on meds," she says, "But I know what I'm saying and I mean it. Dick, I want you to _leave_."

Dick's smile drops the moment she says this. He still wants to believe that it's the meds making her talk like that but he realizes by the look on her face that she's being dead serious..

"Barbara, no. You can't be fucking serious. You really expect me to -?"

"I don't want you to end up like me, or worse," she says, "This is not a life meant for you. You deserve better than all of this. You need to find your own path and you won't find it in Gotham. There's nothing for you here."

"Yes, there is," he says, "There's you. I love you Barbara. You can't just ask me to leave you here. If I'm going, you're coming with me."

She shakes your head in refusal. "There's nothing left of me you can take with, Dick. I'll just bring you down. It's too late for me. I already made my bed and slept on it. There's no need for you to do the same."

Dick tries to process what Barbara is telling him. She's telling him to leave Gotham City and to never come back. He doesn't want to leave Gotham City nor does he want to leave Barbara, especially not like this. How could Barbara be asking something like this? What she's asking him to do is too much.

"Leave, Dick, please," she begs, "Get out of Gotham. Don't look back. And don't come back."

His blue eyes begin to tear up. He didn't think she was being serious. But she is. And the worst part of it is that she doesn't _want_ him to leave.

"I love you, Dick Grayson," she whispers, more tears streaming down her face.

"I love you too, Barbara Gordon," Dick says before kissing her dry lips and presses his forehead to hers. It's probably their last kiss.

Afterwards, Dick leaves the hospital with his eyes still watery. Barbara is left in the hospital bed crying profusely. They hate letting each other go like that but Barbara practically begged for him to leave. Dick walks past Bruce, dressed as Batman, who recently arrives at the hospital with an ambulance which contains Barbara's father Jim Gordon. Bruce calls him out but Dick ignores him.

He runs over to his motorcycle which is waiting on the side of the sidewalk. It's raining heavily, the raindrops mask his tears. The rain makes hair black hair wet and his leather jacket heavy. He gets on the motorcycle. He gives Bruce one last stern look before slipping on the helmet and starts the motorcycle, the engines roaring loudly, before finally driving the motorcycle away from the hospital. Away from Bruce. Away from Gotham. Barbara is right, no matter how much Dick tried denying it. Gotham isn't a place for him anymore. There was no reason for him to stay, except Barbara. But she asked him to stay away from the city, that it would destroy him like it destroyed her, Jason and Bruce, and doesn't want Dick to be destroyed by the city's darkness and corruption. It was already too late for Bruce, Jason and Barbara but it's not too late for Dick.

However, the question still lingers in his head as he continues to ride his motorcycle of Gotham City Bridge (the only bridge that gets people to drive in and out of the city), where is he going and what will he do next?


End file.
